Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “DJI Air 3 Review: the problem child”.
We’Ve gotten so many DJI drones in the last couple of years and here’s the new one, it’s the air three. It has two cameras: 46 minutes of battery life, improved connectivity and range with ocusync 4. new controller brand new design, and I don’t mean to be a downer. But did any of this make you just jump out of your chair like really really excited no sort of in the same boat and listen before you all get mad at me for this hot? Take, let’s set the record straight. The air 3 is a fantastic drone. It’S reliable, it’s versatile, it is a well-capable drone that improves in a few things from its predecessor.
Arguably takes away a few things too, but above all it got me thinking about. One thing has drone Innovation: plateaued is DJI getting boring and if it is who’s, gon na make drones exciting again. So this is my review of the air 3., but also this is your status update on drones and, yes, it is summer it is hot and summer very beautiful and spoilers. This video might make you like this. With the air 3 DJI decided to shrink the main sensor, but in return gave us a second three times telephoto lens at first, I was worried about the smaller sensor, but looking back at my Clips, I think that was premature. This footage looks great. Both lenses are capable of capturing stunning imagery.
I do prefer taking photos with a larger sensor. I think it just handles noise better, but I think this compromise was worth it. The aperture of the main lens is larger than it was on the air 2s, enabling better low-light performance, which is a big plus, and if you use the Mini 3 pro it’ll, all look very similar same sensor, size same aperture as well. The second lens is a 70 millimeter lens, with a smaller aperture than the lens blowing.
It is the same telephoto lens that you’ll find on the mavic 3 Pro that came out not too long ago, and it is a fine lens, but at maximum aperture of 2.8 footage can sometimes look a little bit flat. There is some, but not a lot of separation between the foreground and the background. Don’T expect like stunning bokeh here. That said I’ll, take a dedicated lens over digitally punching in any day of the week, just for the compression alone and The Parallax effect is pretty great.
I love the ability to use the second lens, but that lens also sort of complicate things. So let me explain as someone who desperately wants to extract the best possible image quality from any of my cameras, I’m aiming to film at the lowest ISO possible with proper shutter speeds as well. So I need to use an ND filter, but using an ND filter on the air. 3 is a little bit of a hassle. So once you switch from a main lens with 1.7 aperture to the 2.8 tele lens you’ll likely have to raise ISO, which will increase the noise introduced and just the whole process becomes a bit cumbersome and kind of takes away from that flying experience. I know I know it is a small complaint, but smaller sensors do struggle with degrading image quality at higher ISO. What I’d love to see is for some aftermarket ND filters which can compensate for that aperture difference and make switching between the two lenses. Seamless, wouldn’t that be nice or even better something we’ve all been wanting for a long time, built-in ND filters, Innovation and outside of just talking about these two lenses.
There really isn’t much else to discuss here, there’s a new controller and it’s just as good as the last one except it has visible antennas, which I don’t mind. Ocusync is upgraded, but I haven’t had any major connection issues in years and the range is rated for 20, kilometers or 12 miles, but in practice and legally you will not be able to take advantage of that. Battery life is pretty much same across the whole lineup. Now, which is to say that it’s about 45 minutes give or take – and I think that’s fair – that’s great all in all a great drone, but without any new or fresh ideas, really just iterative, smaller updates.
Okay, so let’s just go quickly through a list of things that I noticed while reviewing this drone d-log is gone and it is replaced by something called d-log M, also something that was introduced recently. It is not as flat and it doesn’t hold as much dynamic range as the traditional v-lock. The stone is not too loud, it’s rated as 81 decibels, and it has like a nice Bassy propeller. Sound big fan of that slow motion is up to 100 frames per. Second and there’s no cropping here: batteries and charging dock are substantially larger, there’s night mode here. It basically allows you to film at higher ISO, slower shutter speeds and it does apply some in-noise camera reduction and it really kind of lowers the darker parts of the image and we can end the video here. But let’s talk about why I feel, like things are slowing down. Why did I come to this and what’s next back in the heady days of 2018 DJI was the clear Market Dominator nearly Untouchable, even before the mavic 2 Pro their Phantom line has made DJI synonymous with the word.
Drone DJI was on top of the world and it was an exciting time. Drones were getting better and smaller DJI group bought the Hasselblad, the legendary camera company to improve its color science. There were competitors out there like unique 3dr, Verizon Skyward, some made it most collabs. Some never even shipped the product remember Lily.
The point is the whole Market just felt alive. No one was playing at the level of DJI and the mavic 2 Pro to me kind of proved that it was a milestone drone, but the success of the mavic 2 Pro had a side effect. Dji kind of got complacent. Its market share was a commanding 74.
In 2018, but it started to drop and DJI reacted it. It took a page from Apple’s, Playbook and started releasing the S and SC and pro and cinemodels at a much faster refreshed cycle. I mean just look at this product list now, just in the last couple of years, we had more than 10 drones. There never been more options for someone who wants a new DJI drone, but making the choices actually not easy.
Even if you look at the air 3 and the Mini 3 Pro right, the main cameras are pretty much the same. No seriously, can you actually tell which drone filmed the shot here, but now you have to choose between wanting an extra lens on the air 3 or the ability to film vertically on the mini 3, and I just wish we can have both. So there is a dedicated vertical mode, which basically works as if you were filming open gate, meaning it’s a bit taller than just cropping horizontal footage vertically, but it is not full 4K. It is capped at 2.7 K, but I think it looks pretty good it’ll work in a pinch, but for all those shiny new models, really the only new features are the lenses and don’t get me wrong. I like the new lenses, but it feels like DJI is setting us up for years of quick product, refreshes and small frankly, sort of boring updates. Does that sound familiar to you? I’M going to be blunt: there’s not a whole lot to get excited about this phone and, in the meantime, a few other companies have been doing genuinely exciting things.
When the skydio R1 came out, it showcased some truly mind-blowing attack. It’S autonomous flying was hard to comprehend. We all assumed that DJI would work overtime to match skydio’s Tech, but that hasn’t happened yet DJ’s own autonomous flying has been largely unchanged. Meanwhile, autel was the first to offer large apertures and drones. Something drum Pilots have been asking for for a long time. They were the first ones to have an 8K drone, although some argue that AK wasn’t actually great and I haven’t had a chance to test it myself. But you know resolution is not everything and then there’s the connectivity dji’s own ocusync used to be the differentiating factor between DJI and other companies and with the air 3 DJI introduced ocusync 4. But in my testing again it’s just as good as I kissing, 3 and accusing 3 plus.
It’S it’s good. You won’t lose connection, but this year at CS, Auto went a step further and introduced, something that is a Mesh networking system, meaning that each autel drone can basically extend the range and piggyback off of each other to create super, reliable and longer. Connectivity in theory can even help you get connection around obstacles like buildings and such a different approach to DJs accessing and I haven’t tested it, but I’m really intrigued by it foreign, that’s the air three, still a very capable drone. That does many things right, but also just a little bit uninspiring at 1549, with the brand new controller it slots in nicely between the mini and the expensive mavic 3s.
But now it’s up to you the viewer, to decide if you want to sub 250 gram drone with vertical filming like the mini and a lot more portable, drone too. Or do you want Stellar micro, four third sensor on the mavic 3 or if you really need that second tele lens and listen? Lastly, DJI a big fan but you’re kind of killing me with these incremental changes. Just go big inspire me, no pun intended there, but let’s see something new, some built-in undies, maybe a backwards camera. What about 360 cameras or just better autonomous flying it’s about time for something new and exciting? Thank you for watching curious. If you agree, are we reaching a point of just diminishing returns? Are you excited by extra lenses which drone do you have now, and does this one want to make you upgraded .